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Real Estate Notes From All Over

By Floyd Norris May 8, 2007 12:04 pmMay 8, 2007 12:04 pm

Notes from higher end real estate:

As a real estate market weakens, homes stay on the market for longer and sellers throw in freebies.

In Aspen, Colo., “Hala Ranch, with its 56,000-square-foot main house and multiple secondary buildings, is perhaps the most magnificent property ever offered for sale anywhere in the world.” At least that is what the real estate broker says. But the house has been on the market for the better part of a year, and so far no one seems to have offered to pay the asking price of $135 million. The seller is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Joshua Saslove of Joshua & Company, the broker for the Saudi’s home, says there are no plans to cut the price. “There have been several interested parties,” he told me. “We’ve had offers.” But none for enough money? “It was more than just price,” he said. “Sometimes there are other elements of a contract that do not work out.”

If that seems high, consider the deal being offered in Sanibel Island, Fla. There, according to a circular distributed in the Wall Street Journal this week, you can get a fully furnished house for $1.95 million. How fully furnished? “A 1990 Ferrarri Testarossa is also included,” the ad states. (The broker is Century 21 J.B. Novelli Internationale.)

It turns out this is a gimmick to sell a new house, one built in 2005 but never occupied. The man who bought it last year now wants to sell it.

And the gimmick hasn’t worked. The seller, I was told by a Novelli broker, has cut the asking price to $1.899 million, but at that bargain price, you don’t get the car.

As it happens, if you are a powerful friend of the Saudi prince, you could get a car without bothering to buy his house. As Helene Cooper and Jim Rutenberg reported in The Times recently, the prince gave a 1995 Jaguar to Colin Powell and his wife after Mr. Powell resigned as secretary of state.

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